Tips for Attaching and Sewing Pieces Together

As a lot of my readers know, I'm a big fan of woodland critters! Thus far, my Twee Toys series have several forest animals, including Fletcher the Fox, Brennan the Bear, and Remi the Rabbit. Guess who the newest member will be? Hint: antlers!

Yep, you've guessed it! A deer!

I'm working on a spotted fawn, and I love how he's turning out so far! I must admit -- attaching pieces and sewing parts together is both my favorite and least favorite part of an amigurumi project. I absolutely love seeing a crochet project come to life when the different pieces are put together. Arranging and positioning them are so much fun! There's also something utterly satisfying about this step in the crochet process, as you know you're in the home stretch of finishing!

However, I also feel anxious about actually sewing pieces down, because truth be told, my hand-sewing skills barely scratch "decent" at best!

Thankfully, over the years, I've found some of the following tips for finishing to be helpful...

TIPS

Use sewing pins to secure pieces together. This way, you can see how everything looks as one unit before you actually sew the separate pieces down. (It's a good way to see your work come to life quickly, too!) Plus, you can re-arrange and re-position with ease, just by removing and inserting the sewing pins.

Follow stitches one by one while sewing. I try to sew stitch for stitch, avoiding two stitches in one, or one in two, for the sake of amigurumi looking neat and tidy! In most amigurumi projects where you'll be joining two openings to each other (e.g., head to the body), the stitch counts are the same. For example, if the opening of the head is 24 sts, the body's opening is likely 24 sts as well.

Per recommendation from NRHALLER in the comments, a darning needle can be a very helpful tool too! It features a bent tip, which can help pick up stitches in tricky-to-reach angles for straight needles. Here's what a darning needle looks like:

Hold yarn or thread at double when sewing larger pieces together. This will help with increasing the sturdiness of the joined pieces. If you aren't able to double-up on the yarn due to the small size of your yarn needle's eye, you can also re-sew the part a second time for added sturdiness. (Or, you can follow tips in Chica and Jo's post on threading yarn through needles!)

Take it easy, and be patient! This is a key point for me, because I sometimes get very excited about the sewing phase, and end up having to pull stitches out because I didn't plan appropriately or take my time with the project. It always helps me to remind myself to be mindful and patient! :)

In the photo on the left (above), I have two white sewing pins marking the location of the deer's left ear before sewing it down. The sewing pins are a godsend in the finishing phase of crochet projects for me!

If you have some tips for attaching or sewing pieces together, I'd love to hear them as well!